How to take care of Swords - 2

Manual of How to handle and Take Care of
Swords

Manual of How to handle and Take Care of
Swords_2

B) Method of Swordcare
1. Lay down the mounted blade and push the
peg out in preparetion for removing the hilt.
2. Pull the blade out of the scabbard.
3. To remove the hilt, hold its end with
the left had on the side where the back of
the blade is fit, and keep the blade in a
slightly angled upright position. Wse the
right fist to hit the left wrist lightly
a few times. When the tang(Nakago) becomes
slightly loosened in the hilt, repeat until
the tang comes out of the hilt by itself.
When there is enough room to grasp the tang,
the blade may be pulled out of the hilt by
the right hand.
Be careful not to hit the left wrist too
hard with the right hand as there is a danger
that blades with short tang like Tanto might
bounce out of the hilt entirely. Therefore,
the initial impact must be light, just to
check how tightly the tang is fixed in the
hilt. Then, the force of subsequent blows
must be adjusted accordingly. When the blade
is taken out of the hilt, the peg removed
from the hilt should be replaced.
4. If the blade is mounted in a full Koshirae,
other attachments such as swordguard(Tsuba)
and spacers(Seppa) on both sides of the swordguard
in addition to the collar must be replaced.
When the collar is fit too tightly to remove,
it can be loosened by hitting it with a wooden
hammer on the back(Mune) after covering the
collar with a cloth for protection.
5. The wiping process requires two pieces
of paper. The initial one removes the old
oil and dust, which is called preliminary
cleaning. First place the cleaning paper
on the back and fold it into halves toward
the edge. Then, hold the paper covered blade
from above the back so that the thumb and
forefinger grip each side of the cutting
section from above the paper.
Hardly any force is needed to wipe the blade
upward, one way, starting from the base.
When the cleaning papeer reaches the point,
be particularly careful in wiping lightly.
No pressure or friction must be put on the
point. When expertise is attained, the wiping
action can also be both ways, up and down.
Lack of experience could cause the cutting
of paper or even fingers and thus it must
be strictly avoided.

Drawing a blade out of the scabbard

6. In case the oil cannot be removed with
ease, cotton or gauze soaked in benzene or
pure alcohol may be used in the same wiping
manner as described above.
7. The powdering starts from the base toward
the tip on the obverse in a light, uniform
patting motion to cover the blade surface.
Then turn the blade over and start patting
from the point downward toward the base.
8. Then, use the other sheet of paper to
wipe the powder off the blade surface in
the same manner as described in (5) in this
section. If oil remains, some more powdering
and wiping is necessary.
9. When the surface is throughly clean, check
for the presence of rust, flaws and other
damages. Then, without putting back the hilt,
collar and other attachments, the blade alone
must be placed back in the scabbard or rest
the blade alone on the soft cusion called
Katana-makura so that blade surface never
touches on the hard items such as table top.
It should be noted that the two kinds of
wiping paper used in this process must not
be interchanged and should have distinct
purposes-preliminary and final.